re: #337 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

The story has been getting some airtime on the NYC metro news, but at least one report interviewed a Jewish student who’s saying it isn’t anti-Semitic because they’re involved in distributing the flyers.

Umm… no.

It’s anti-Semitic because it’s targeting the a group because of their religious and ethnic affiliation, and it’s purposefully designed to frighten and scare the recipients. And while NYU is so far claiming that Jews weren’t targeted by the flyers, it does appear that the dorms where they were distributed under doors, does have a higher than average number of Jews residing there (and the dorm has a Shabbat elevator too).

And also because the underlying reason (that Israel does it against Palestinians in a similar fashion, and that it is somehow illegal under international law) isn’t quite accurate either.

This is a worrying trend on college campuses as other schools around the country have had similar incidents in the past year. Our Shul is holding an event to alert parents and college age-students about the situation, and what they can do to counter them.

As the ADL notes, while Israel does engage in some evictions, there is a legal process to conduct the evictions, and demolitions are done when those involved are engaging in activities against Israel’s security (like allowing terrorists to use the location for smuggling, weapons preparations, etc.).